Are medical sales jobs suffering the credit crunch
Medical sales jobs have often said to be recession proof, after all, people will continue to be sick. However, the industry has suffered severe job losses in the last 2 years.
The reasons for the drastic reductions in numbers of medical sales jobs are partially due to the structures pharmaceutical companies had built over the last decade to sell their drugs. Many had grown to have up to 8 medical sales reps per territory, and this was always going to be short term affair as it was unlikely to be a profitable exercise on a annual basis.
When job began to be cut, it was assumed that this was primarily a reversal of what appeared to be an over expansion in numbers in the 90s. However, no there can be seen to be an indirect link between the governments economic plight and job cuts for medical sales jobs.
The government must now find, and be seen to be finding anyways of economizing that it can. Consequently it is squeezing the NHS from every direction, including demands to curb the growing drugs budget. For pharmaceutical companies looking at their own costs to maintain profits amidst government enforced reductions in sales turnover, medical sales jobs represent a significant portion of their costs, meaning reductions in number can be a quick fix to growing problems.
This explains why many pharm companies have cut staff numbers recently. All this said, once restructures are complete, people will be sick, and so the new and smaller medical sales structures should be relatively secure in what appears will remain a volatile economy.
